Sri Chinmoy’s Philosophy for the Inner Life

Posted September 19, 2016

Sri Chinmoy was a spiritual teacher who established meditation centers around the world; he was also a prolific poet, musician, artist and weightlifter. From 1970, at the behest of the then UN secretary-general U Thant, Sri Chinmoy took part in twice weekly meditations at the United Nations. Sri Chinmoy initiated many other projects, which aimed to promote the goal of inner and outer peace; this includes the Sri Chinmoy Oneness-Home Peace Run, a global torch relay for peace. Sri Chinmoy was born in India and moved to New York, US in 1964, where he remained until his death in 2007.

For Beginning Meditation:

“Meditation speaks. It speaks in silence. It reveals. It reveals to the aspirant that matter and spirit are one, quantity and quality are one, the immanent and the transcendent are one. It reveals that life can never be the mere existence of seventy or eighty years between birth and death, but is, rather, Eternity itself.”

From the spiritual point of view, every seeker is a beginner. The moment you want to make constantly and continual progress, at that moment you become an eternal beginner.

From the spiritual point of view, every seeker is a beginner. A beginner is he who has the inner urge to grow into something ever more divine, ever more illumining and ever more fulfilling. The moment you want to make constant and continuous progress, the moment you want to surpass yourself and enter into the ever-transcending Beyond, at that moment you become an eternal beginner.

If you are an absolute beginner, then you can start by reading a few spiritual books or scriptures. These will give you inspiration. You should read books by spiritual Masters in whom you have implicit faith. There are Masters who have attained the highest consciousness, and if you read their books, you are bound to get inspiration. It is better not to read books written by professors or scholars or aspirants who are still on the path and have not yet attained illumination. Only those who have realised the Truth will have the capacity to offer the Truth. Otherwise, it is like the blind leading the blind.

It is also a good idea to associate with people who have been meditating for some time. These people may not be in a position to teach you, but they will be able to inspire you. Even if you just sit beside them while they are meditating, unconsciously your inner being will derive some meditative power from them. You are not stealing anything; only your inner being is taking help from them without your outer knowledge.

In the beginning you should not even think about meditation. Just try to set aside a certain time of day when you will try to be calm and quiet, and feel that these five minutes belong to your inner being and to nobody else. Regularity is of paramount importance. What you need is regular practice at a regular time.

Every day there is only one thing to learn: how to be honestly happy.”

Watch: A Day in the Life of Sri Chinmoy

This is an early 16mm film of spiritual teacher Sri Chinmoy produced around 1975. It starts with art. Sri Chinmoy is doing Jharna-Kala painting records and shows his work for the first time in public. One of the achievements was the creation of a big canvas, several meters long. another chapter shows him in Samadhi in his home, a kind of highest meditation rarely seen in this form. But the film also shows Sri Chinmoy driving himself to the UN where he conducted twice weekly meditations to staff. One film section is especially cute: you see him taking breakfast and he expresses his love for cucumbers. The last part shows him walking to a meditation on a meadow and then demonstrating several divine qualities and meditation techniques. [courtesy of the Sri Chinmoy Center, New York]

Book to hang out with – Beyond Within: A Philosophy for the Inner Life

“Beyond Within is a title to be read in two ways, Used as a noun the word “Beyond” suggests that within each of us there is an experience of “the Beyond,”and awareness of ourselves as limitless, extensive: transcending the narrow frame of self-conception which marks our ordinary life. Used as preposition, “Beyond” suggests that we do not remain within, but go beyond the within to manifest in the world the fruits of our inner experience. The title is intended in both senses.

In so reading the title, however, we may foster the illusion that the realisation of the Beyond within us and the manifestation of that awareness in the outer world are separable. We may, if we choose, distinguish inhaling from exhaling, but breathing is an act where both are required. So with inner realisation and outer manifestation: they are always in relation to one another. the more we realise of our true nature in our inward soundings, the more we will enact that awareness in all our relations with the world.”

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